{"id":316,"date":"2014-02-06T01:39:43","date_gmt":"2014-02-06T01:39:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.iuhrdf.org\/en\/2014\/02\/06\/china-should-release-immediately-ilham-tohti\/"},"modified":"2014-02-06T01:39:43","modified_gmt":"2014-02-06T01:39:43","slug":"china-should-release-immediately-ilham-tohti","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/china-should-release-immediately-ilham-tohti\/","title":{"rendered":"China should release immediately Ilham Tohti"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>On January 15th, 2014, China, a newly-elected UN Human Rights Council member, arrested distinguished Uyghur scholar and activist Ilham Tohti without specific charges, drawing swift condemnation from the United States and European Union.<\/p>\n<div>Published on February 4, 2014<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>\n<div>On January 15th, 2014,&nbsp;China, a&nbsp;newly-elected UN Human Rights Council member, arrested distinguished Uyghur scholar and activist Ilham Tohti without specific charges, drawing swift condemnation from the United States and European Union. The U.S. State Department lambasted the arrest as \u201cpart of a disturbing pattern of arrests and detentions of public interest lawyers, Internet activists, journalists, religious leaders and others who peacefully challenge official Chinese policies and actions.\u201d EU Ambassador to China, Markus Ederer, criticized the \u201coverall tightening of the human rights situation\u201d and called for Mr. Tohti\u2019s release \u201cif [the] charges cannot be substantiated\u201d under law.<\/div>\n<p>Ilham Tohti, an economics professor who has taught at Beijing\u2019s Minzu University, was known for his&nbsp;nonviolent perspectives.<\/p>\n<div>More than thirty officials ransacked Mr. Tohti\u2019s home for two hours, later arresting and strip searching several of his students. Mr. Tohti\u2019s mother, wife, and two young sons remain confined under house arrest.&nbsp;China has refused to divulge Mr. Tohti\u2019s whereabouts and his current status is unknown.<\/div>\n<div>&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div>By serving at the UN Human Rights Council, China has committed to \u201cuphold the highest standards of human rights.\u201d Regrettably, its actions show little respect to its international obligations, the United Nations, human rights and the rule of law.<\/div>\n<p>UN Watch&nbsp;calls for Mr. Tohti\u2019s immediate and unconditional&nbsp;release&nbsp;and his safe return to his family members.<\/p>\n<p>See below for more information:<\/p>\n<p>1. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.state.gov\/r\/pa\/prs\/ps\/2014\/01\/219936.htm\">U. S. State Department Statement<\/a><\/p>\n<p>2. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.consilium.europa.eu\/uedocs\/cms_Data\/docs\/pressdata\/EN\/foraff\/140884.pdf\">EU High Representative Statement<\/a><\/p>\n<p>3. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amnesty.org\/en\/library\/asset\/ASA17\/003\/2014\/en\/455c8121-6c78-4a9d-98ea-40b51550a12c\/asa170032014en.pdf\">Amnesty International Urgent Action<\/a><\/p>\n<p>4. <a href=\"http:\/\/en.rsf.org\/china-where-has-ilham-tohti-been-held-29-01-2014,45799.html\">Reporters Without Borders Statement<\/a><\/p>\n<p>5. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.cnn.com\/2014\/01\/17\/world\/asia\/china-uyghur-scholar\/\">CNN report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>6. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/world\/asia_pacific\/china-announces-offenses-against-detained-scholar\/2014\/01\/25\/02494a36-8641-11e3-aff8-191f8d178325_story.html\">Washington Post report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>7. <a href=\"http:\/\/sinosphere.blogs.nytimes.com\/2014\/01\/16\/outspoken-uighur-scholar-detained-in-beijing\/?_php=true&amp;_type=blogs&amp;_r=0\">New York Times report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>8. <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/news\/articles\/SB10001424052702304419104579324020288326960\">Wall Street Journal report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>9. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/news\/world-asia-china-25757198\">BBC report<\/a><\/p>\n<p>10. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.initiativesforchina.org\/?p=1621\">Initiatives for China<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>On January 15th, 2014, China, a newly-elected UN Human Rights Council member, arrested distinguished Uyghur scholar and activist Ilham Tohti without specific charges, drawing swift condemnation from the United States and European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":315,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"topic":[],"class_list":["post-316","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316"},{"taxonomy":"topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iuhrdf.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic?post=316"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}